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Scientist welcomes huge water buyback

The Murrumbidgee River at Hay in the western Riverina marks the start of the journey for water that'll travel across the Lowbidgee floodplain system

Laurissa Smith

The Commonwealth has approved what's believed to be the largest land and water buyback in the Murray-Darling Basin.

It's offered $180 million for 173 gigalitres of water and 84,000 hectares on the Nimmie Caira floodplain in southern NSW.

Professor Richard Kingsford, director of the Australian Wetlands, Rivers and Landscapes Centre at the University of NSW, says this deal brings some big opportunities for wetlands to be managed sustainably.

"You know, undoubtedly that system down there is one of the most important in the Murray-Darling," he said.

"I remember first seeing all the flooding and the waterbirds and the incredible biodiversity in the mid-1980s, and at that time some people used to call it little Kakadu because it was an incredible place."

NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson says while the deal reduces the pressure for water buybacks in the Murrumbidgee, it won't mean NSW will sign the agreement with the Commonwealth to implement the Basin Plan.

"Look, there is still some way to go, although this puts a significant dent in that figure," she said.

"We are still not in a place where I can be recommending the Premier signs the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. There are several outstanding issues."

Michael Spinks, at the lower end of the Nimmie Caira floodplain, north-east of Balranald, is the spokesperson for the group of 11 landholders involved in the deal.

Despite the windfall, he says he's not planning on retiring just yet.

"Most of us fellers are in that 50 to 60-year age group, we've still got a few years left in us, so we won't be retiring."